A stretch of land the size of Rabat, where terraced fields run down to the coastline, is set to become managed parkland on Malta’s southeastern coast.

The aim is to steer away from ‘showcase conservation’ by providing local context and objectives for the area’s protection.

Now that the management plan brief for the Nwadar nature park has gone through public consultation, the next step is a legal notice protecting the land as parkland.

Nwadar, from the Arab word (plural of Nadir), is named after of a series of vantage points along the coastal strip between Xgħajra and Żonqor Point. The area has already seen some narrow escapes from development pressures of various kinds here. Yet siting a nature park at Nwadar has been in the local plan since 2006.

Politicians have denied that the park is ‘environmental compensation’ in return for adjacent development. The park project is claimed to be ‘standalone’ rather than a balancing act to offset construction on the tip of Marsascala Bay, over half of it outside the development zone.

If the strip of open coast can be sustainably managed, as the management brief has proposed, then it could well turn out to be a good thing in its own right.

However, the brief warns that “urban and infrastructure developments close to and within the park may reduce its attractiveness, especially if there are visual impacts from a lack of sensitive design and landscaping”.

Riddled as it has been with controversy – both from an environmental and academic perspective – the American University development at Żonqor Point has fired up opportunities for restoring the surrounding environment.

This part of the Maltese coastline was nearly turned over to a desalination plant, and later a fish farm base. In 2009, a government-led application to develop the area as a caravan site was filed with the planning authority, but later withdrawn.

The proposed potential for use by caravans has not been ruled out in the park. According to the brief, the idea “requires further assessment” and may (or may not) be integrated into a wider plan and guided by national policy.

Most of the development since 1992 has taken place to the west of the historic but decrepit Fort San Leonardo where debris was levelled and covered with topsoil. An animal farm occupying the fort continues to be problematic.

One of the greatest challenges for Nwadar national park, if it materialises as planned, will be the substantial financial and human resources required. It is thought that this may be best achieved by outsourcing to private entities or partnerships, while keeping NGOs in the consultation loop

The proposed park site is easily accessible – too easily reached for some. A wide, dusty and illegal road along the shore has opened the area for dumping and off-roading. Visitor access to the park needs to be better managed.

Listing threats to the proposed park area, the draft plan mentions “conflicting and incompatible uses and demands”. Hunting is not the least of these.

Since there is hardly a scrap of the Maltese countryside where illegal hunting is not known, there are many who would wish for the park to be a haven where hunting and trapping is outlawed. Few politicians venture here.

An acceptable solution for all in the long term might be a natural phase-out: “No new hunters should be allowed in the park after existing ones have died off,” suggested one observer.

According to Alexander Muscat, spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister, where evidence of user conflict arises, the park’s governing body “may adopt additional measures and/or regulations to safeguard overall objectives”.

Conflicts over hunting, trapping and off-roading abuses would not trouble farmers and visitors to the area if only existing regulations were energetically enforced.

A promising direction taken by the Nwadar management brief is looking at potential to recover abandoned fields. Where natural vegetation has already established itself there are plans to hand the land back to nature.

Elsewhere in the park, fields that were previously worked but left in a state of abandon are recommended for scheduling as Areas of Agricultural Value and the uptake of cultivation is proposed.

Nwadar Park brief strongly supports the role of agriculture in safeguarding rural landscapes within a natural setting. The presence of an active farming community tending the land eases this process to some extent.

The park also ties in well with an important measure related to of Malta’s climate change strategy:

There is an opportunity here for the Agriculture Department to co-ordinate studies within the park on adapting crops to climate change. Fields at Nwadar could be turned to discovering how local breeds and crop varieties can help us adjust to an environment in flux.

Discussions have taken place between the local farming community and the Water Services Corporation to assess the potential of tapping treated water from the sewage treatment plant at Ta’ Barkat for irrigation purposes. Suggestions were put forward during the public consultation phase about the treatment plant and measures needed to mitigate against noise, smell and visual impacts.

The marine area adjacent to the park has not so far been included in the national bathing water quality monitoring programme. This could be set to change, especially if the area is given particular marine conservation status.

A total of 24 written submissions were received following the public consultation meetings.

Despite suggestions to extend the park area as far as Żabbar (by up to 44,000 square metres) it was decided that any possible revision of park boundaries should be based on lessons learnt from implementation of the existing brief.

Public feedback also called for improvement of roads and pavements leading to the park and better access by public transport.

Detailed actions will be recommended for the management of vehicles and promotion of green modes of transport in the park and its surroundings.

Other actions proposed and adopted are planting of indigenous and endemic trees and shrubs to protect agricultural land from sea spray and access to the sea for scuba divers, bearing in mind environmental sensitivities of the rocky coast.

The Kaffir Fig, an alien invasive species on the Xgħajra-Marsascala coastline, is to be removed as a biodiversity protection measure at the proposed Nwadar nature park.

Removal of the alien Kaffir fig, as the park plan proposes, would be in line with the aims of Malta’s national biodiversity sustainable action plan.

Improving the status of a number of endemic plants at Nwadar is the likely result if this area is sustainably managed as parkland. Including the stretch of sea along the adjacent shore in the park would mean better protection for the date mussel, a species of European Community Interest.

One of the greatest challenges for Nwadar national park, if it materialises as planned, will be the substantial financial and human resources required.

It is thought that this may be best achieved by outsourcing to private entities or partnerships, while keeping NGOs in the consultation loop.